Hitler Family

The Hitler family includes relatives and ancestors of Adolf Hitler ( 20 of April of 1889 – 30 of April of 1945 ), politician and leader of the German National Socialist Workers Party (German: Deutsche Nationalsozialistische Arbeiterpartei, abbreviated NSDAP), Commonly known as the Nazi Party. He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and served as head of state as Führer during the period 1934-1945. Hitler is most remembered for his central leadership role in the emergence of fascism in Europe, World War II and the Holocaust .

Before the birth of Adolf Hitler, the family surname had many variations that were often used almost indistinctly. Some of the common variations were Hitler, Hiedler, Hüttler, Hytler and Hittler. Alois Schicklgruber (Adolf’s father) changed his surname to Hitler on January 7, 1877 and was the only form of the surname Adolf used.

The family has always been of interest to historians and genealogists, due to the paternity in dispute of the father of Adolf Hitler, as well as the family’s interrelations and its psychological effect on Adolf during his childhood.

Family history

Hitler’s family descended from Stefan Hiedler (born in 1672) and his wife, Agnes Capeller. His grandson was Martin Hiedler (17 November 1762 – 10 January 1829), who married Anna Maria Göschl (23 August 1760 – 7 December 1854). Martin and Anna were the parents of at least three children, Lorenz, of which no more, Johann Georg (baptized February 28, 1792 – February 9, 1857), which was the stepfather of Alois Hitler (father of Adolf ), And Johann Nepomuk (March 19, 1807 – September 17, 1888), a maternal great-grandfather of Adolf Hitler. They were from Spital (part of Weitra), Austria .

Johann Georg and Johann Nepomuk

Brothers Johann Georg and Johann Nepomuk Hiedler are connected to Adolf Hitler in several ways, although the biological relationship is in dispute.

Johann Georg was legitimized and considered the officially accepted paternal grandfather of Adolf Hitler. Whether or not it is actually Hitler’s biological paternal grandfather remains unknown, since he was not put as the father in Alois’s birth certificate, but most historians are satisfied that Alois’ father was Johann Georg Hiedler. 2 He married his first wife in 1824, but she died giving birth five months later. In 1842, he married Maria Anna Schicklgruber and became the legal stepfather of his illegitimate five-year-old son, Alois.

Johann Nepomuk Hiedler (also known like Johann Nepomuk Hüttler) was named in honor to the bohemian saint Juan Nepomuceno . Some see this name as proof that Johann Nepomuk and therefore his great-grandson Adolf Hitler had a little Czech blood. However, Johann von Pomuk / Johann Nepomuk was an important saint for bohemians of both German and Czech ethnicities. The name of “Nepomuk” is limited to indicate ties with Bohemia, without indication of their ethnic origin. Johann Nepomuk became a relatively prosperous farmer and was married to Eva Maria Decker (1792-1873), who was fifteen years his senior.

Hitler’s father Alois

Alois Hitler , father of Adolf Hitler

The identity of the true father of Alois is disputed. Legally, Johann Nepomuk was the uncle of Alois Schicklgruber (later Alois Hitler), the stepson of his brother Johann Georg Hiedler, errant miller. 3 For reasons unknown, when Alois was a child, he adopted and raised him. It is possible that he was, in fact, the biological father of Alois, but could not acknowledge it publicly because of his marriage. Another, perhaps simpler, explanation for this kindness is that he sympathized with Alois when he was ten years old. Alois was, after all, Johann Georg’s stepson, and after the death of Alois’s mother, Mary, it could hardly have been a life for a ten-year-old child to be raised by an itinerant miller. Johann Nepomuk died on September 17, 1888.

In any case, when he died, Johann Nepomuk left Alois a considerable part of his savings. Johann Nepomuk’s granddaughter, Klara, had a long-term affair with Alois before marrying him in 1885 after the death of his second wife. In 1889, she gave birth to Adolf Hitler.

It was later said that Johann Georg Hiedler was the father of Alois before his marriage to Mary, although Alois had been declared illegitimate in his birth certificate and baptism papers, claiming that Johann Georg was the true father of Alois Was made after the marriage of Mary and Johann Georg, or, indeed, even during the lifetime of any of them. In 1877, 20 years after the death of Johann Georg and nearly 30 years after Maria’s death, Alois was legally declared the son of Johann Georg.

Accordingly, Johann Georg Hiedler is one of the three most cited by modern historians as having possibly been the real paternal grandfather of Adolf Hitler. The other two possibilities in terms of paternity are Johann Nepomuk Hiedler , Johann Georg’s younger brother, and a Jew from Graz under the name of Leopold Frankenberger (whose theory was rumored by ex-Nazi Hans Frank during the Nuremberg Trials ). In the 1950s, the third possibility became popular among historians, but modern historians have now come to the conclusion that Frank’s speculation is unreliable as it has many contradictions. According to Frank, Maria came from “Leonding, near Linz”, when in fact she came from the village of Strones, near the village of Döllersheim. In addition, no evidence has been found that a “Frankenberger” existed. Jews were expelled from Styria (which includes Graz) in the 15th century, and were not allowed to return until the 1860s, several decades after the birth of Alois.

Although Johann Georg Hiedler was later legitimized and was officially accepted as paternal grandfather of Adolf Hitler, the question of whether or not he was Hitler’s grandfather remains open and has provoked speculation. However, his theories have been considered the most plausible and widely accepted. 2 The German historian Joachim Fest wrote:

The indulgence that is usually devoted to the origins of man is out of place in the case of Adolf Hitler, who did documentary evidence of Aryan descent a matter of life and death for millions of people, but he himself did not possess such a document . He did not know it was his grandfather. Intensive research in its origins, the accounts of which have been distorted by propaganda legends and which are in any case confused and murky, have so far failed to produce a clear picture. Versions for other socialist countries brushed the facts and emphasized, for example, that the population of the so-called Waldviertel, from which Hitler arrived, had been ‘tribal of Germany since the migration of peoples’, or more generally, that Hitler Had “absorbed the powerful forces of this German granite landscape in his blood through his father.

Family Pölzl

Johanna Hiedler , the daughter of Johann Nepomuk and Eva Hiedler (maiden Decker) was born on 19 January 1830 in Spital (part of Weitra) in the Waldviertel of Lower Austria .

He lived all his life there and married Johann Baptist Pölzl (1825-1901), a peasant son of Johann Pölzl and Juliana (Walli) Pölzl. Johanna and Johann had 5 sons and 6 daughters, of whom 2 sons and 3 daughters survived into adulthood, the 3 daughters are Klara , Johanna, and Theresia.

1870’s

Main article: Alois Hitler

At age 36, Alois Hitler was married for the first time, with Anna Glasl-Hörer, who was a wealthy 50-year-old daughter of a customs official. She was sick when Alois married her and was either an invalid or became a little later. Not long after marrying her, Alois Hitler started an affair with Franziska “Fanni” Matzelsberger, 19, one of the young servants employed in house # 219 at Pommer Inn in the town of Braunau am Inn , Where he rented the upper floor as accommodation. Smith states that Alois had numerous adventures in the 1870s, resulting in his wife initiating legal action; On November 7, 1880 Alois and Anna separated by mutual agreement. Matzelsberger became the bride of the 43-year-old Hitler, but the two could not marry because under the canonical right of the Catholic Church , divorce is not allowed. In 1876, three years after Alois married Anna, he hired Klara Pölzl as a domestic servant. She was the 16-year-old granddaughter of her adopted uncle (and possible father or biological uncle) Johann Nepomuk. If Nepomuk was Father Alois, Klara was Alois’ half-niece . If his father was Johann Georg, he was his first cousin. Matzelsberger demanded that “maid” Klara find another job, and Hitler sent Pölzl in the distance.

1880s

Klara Pölzl Hitler , wife of Alois and mother of Adolf Hitler

On January 13, 1882, Matzelsberger gave birth to Hitler’s illegitimate son, also called Alois, but since they were not married, the child was Alois Matzelsberger. Hitler kept Matzelsberger as his wife while his lawful wife Anna grew up very ill and died on 6 April 1883. The following month, on 22 May at a ceremony in Braunau with fellow customs officers as witnesses, Hitler, 45 Years, married Matzelsberger, 21. He then legitimized his son as Alois Hitler, Jr .. Matzelsberger went to Vienna to give birth to Angela Hitler . When he was just 23 years old, he acquired a lung disorder and became too sick to function. She moved to Ranshofen , a small village near Braunau. During the last months of Matzelsberger’s life, Klara Pölzl returned to Alois to take care of the sick woman and her two children. 4 Matzelsberger died in Ranshofen on August 10, 1884 at the age of 23. After his death, Pölzl remained in Hitler’s house as a housekeeper. 4

Pölzl was soon pregnant by Alois. Smith writes that if Hitler had been free to do what he wanted, he would have married Pölzl immediately, but because of the sworn statement about his paternity, Hitler was now legally second cousin to Pölzl, being too close relatives to get marry. He filed an appeal to the church for a humanitarian exemption . Permission arrived, and on January 7, 1885, a wedding was held in rooms rented by Hitler on the upper floor of the Pommer Inn. A meal was served for the few guests and witnesses. Hitler went to work for the rest of the day. Even Klara found that the wedding had been a short ceremony. Throughout the marriage, she continued calling him uncle .

On May 17, 1885, five months after the wedding, the new Mrs. Klara Hitler gave birth to her first child, Gustav. A year later, on September 25, 1886, she gave birth to a daughter, Ida. His son Otto followed Ida in 1887, but died shortly after birth. 5 During the winter of 1887-1888, the diphtheria struck home to Hitler, which resulted in the death of both Gustav (December 8) and Ida (January 2). Klara and Alois had been married for three years, and all their children had died, but Alois still had the children of his relationship with Matzelsberger, Alois Jr., and Angela. On April 20, 1889, Klara gave birth to Adolf Hitler .

1890s

The newborn Adolf Hitler, son of Alois and Klara

Adolf was a sick child, and his mother worried about him. Alois was 51 when he was born, had little interest in raising children and left everything to his wife. When he was not at work, he was in a tavern or busy with his hobby: beekeeping . In 1892, Hitler was transferred from Braunau to Passau . He was 55, Klara 32, Alois Jr. 10, Angela 9, and Adolf was three years old. In 1894, Hitler was reassigned to Linz . Klara gave birth to her fifth son, Edmund, on March 24, 1894, so it was decided that she and the children would stay in Passau for the time being.

In February 1895, Hitler bought a house on a 9-acre plot in Hafeld near Lambach, about 30 miles (48 km) southwest of Linz. The farm was called the Rauscher Gut. He moved with his family to the farm and retired on June 25, 1895 at the age of 58 after 40 years in the customs service. He found farming difficult, lost money, and property value declined. On January 21, 1896, Paula Hitler was born.

Alois was often at home with his family. He had five children between the ages of 14 and 14; Smith suggests, who shouted to the children almost continuously and made long visits to the local tavern. Robert GL Waite noted: “Even one of his closest friends admitted that Alois was” terribly rough “with his wife [Klara] and almost never spoke a word to her at home. “If Hitler was in a bad mood, he retaliated in the older children or in the same Klara, in front of them.

After Hitler and his eldest son Alois Jr had a climactic and violent relationship, Alois Jr left home at age 14, and Elder Alois swore he would never give the child a penny of the inheritance beyond what Requires the law. Apparently his relations with his step-mother Klara were also tense. After working as an apprentice waiter at the Shelbourne Hotel in Dublin, Ireland, he was arrested for robbery and served a five-month sentence in 1900, followed by an eight-month sentence in 1902.

1900s

Edmund, the youngest boy Hitler, died of measles on 2 February 1900. Alois wanted his son Adolf to pursue a career in civil service. However, Adolf had become so alienated from his father that he rejected any of Alois’s wishes. Adolf scoffed at the idea of ​​a life dedicated to meeting petty rules. Alois attempted to intimidate his son into obedience while Adolf did his best to be the opposite of what his father wanted. Alois Hitler died in 1903, leaving to Klara a government of pensions. She sold the house in Leonding and moved with the young Adolf and Paula to an apartment in Linz, where they lived sparingly. Three or four years later, a tumor was diagnosed in his chest. After a long series of painful treatments with iodoform , administered by his doctor Eduard Bloch, Klara died at his home in Linz on December 21, 1907. Adolf and Paula were at his side. 6 7 The siblings took some kind of financial support from their mother’s pension and her modest estate. Klara was buried in Leonding.

Adolf Hitler had a close relationship with his mother, was crushed by his death and took the pain for the rest of his life. Speaking of Hitler, Bloch later recalled that after Klara’s death, he had never seen “a young man so much pain and suffering.” Referring to Fig.

On 14 September 1903, 9 Adolf’s half-sister Angela Hitler married Leo Raubal (11 June 1879 – 10 August 1910), a tax inspector, and on October 12, 1906 she gave birth to a Son, Leo . On June 4, 1908, Angela gave birth to Geli and in 1910 a second daughter, Elfriede (Elfriede Maria Hochegger, January 10, 1910 – September 24, 1993).

1910s

In 1909, Alois Hitler, Jr. met an Irishwoman named Bridget Dowling at the Dublin Horse Show. He escaped to London and was married on June 3, 1910. Bridget’s father, William Dowling, threatened to sue Alois for arrest, but Bridget dissuaded him. The couple settled in Liverpool, where their son William Patrick Hitler was born in 1911. The family lived in a flat at 102 Upper Stanhope Street. The house was destroyed in the last German air raid in Liverpool on January 10, 1942. Nothing remained of the house or those surrounding it, and the area was finally cleared and covered with grass. The memoirs of Bridget Dowling claim Adolf Hitler lived with them in Liverpool between 1912 and 1913 while he was in the race to dodge compulsory military service in his native Austria-Hungary, but most historians dismiss this story as a fiction invented for Make the book more appealing to publishers. 10 Alois tried to make money by running a small restaurant on Dale Street, a guest house and a hotel in Mount Pleasant, all of which failed. Alois Jr. left his family in 1914 and returned alone to the German empire to settle in the safe barbershop business.

Paula had moved to Vienna, where she worked as a secretary. He had no contact with Adolf during the period comprising the difficult years as a painter in Vienna and later Munich, military service during World War I and early political activities back in Munich. She was delighted to welcome him back to Vienna during the 1920s, but later stated that she had been distressed by her subsequent growing fame.

World War I

Hitler with his war companions, 1914

When World War I broke out, Alois Jr. was stranded in Germany and it was impossible for his wife and son to join him. He married another woman, Hedwig Heidemann (or Hedwig Mickley 11 ), in 1916. After the war, a third party informed Bridget that he was supposed to be dead.

With the outbreak of World War I, Hitler was a resident of Munich and volunteered to serve in the Bavarian Army as an Austrian citizen. 12 Hitler’s case was not exceptional, since he was not the only Austrian soldier on the Regimental List. It is probable that Hitler was accepted into the Bavarian army either simply because no one had asked him whether or not he was a German citizen when he first volunteered or because the recruiting authorities were happy to accept any volunteers and simply did not care What Hitler’s nationality was, or why he might have told the Bavarian authorities that he intended to become a German citizen. We can not know. 13

He served as a broker office on the Western Front in France and Belgium, 14 spending almost half their time well behind the front lines. 15 16 He was present in the First Battle of Ypres , the Battle of the Somme , the Battle of Arras , and the Battle of Passchendaele , and was wounded in that of the Somme. 17 He was decorated for his bravery, receiving the Second Class Iron Cross in 1914. Recommended by Hugo Gutmann , he received the First Class Iron Cross, on August 4, 1918, 18 a award rarely granted to anyone with the rank of Hitler ( Gefreiter ). After Hitler at the regiment headquarters, he had provided frequent interactions with senior officers, may have helped to receive this award. 19 Although their prized actions may have been brave, they were probably not very exceptional. 20 He also received the Wound Medal on May 18, 1918. 21 During his service at headquarters, Hitler continued his work of art, drawing cartoons, and instructions for an army newspaper. During the Battle of the Somme in October 1916, he was injured, either in the groin area 22 or in the left thigh by a projectile. 2. 3

Hitler spent nearly two months at the Red Cross hospital in Beelitz, returning to his regiment, on March 5, 1917. 24 On October 15, 1918, he was temporarily blinded by a mustard gas attack and was hospitalized in Pasewalk. 25 Although Hitler did not learn of the defeat of Germany, 26 and on his own account-upon receiving this news, he suffered a second attack of blindness. 27 Hitler became bitter about the collapse of the war effort, and his ideological development began to take shape with firmness. 28 He described the war as “the greatest of all experiences,” and was praised by his commanders for his courage. 29 The experience reinforced his passionate German patriotism and was surprised by the German capitulation in November 1918. 30 Like other German nationalists, he believed in the Dolchstoßlegende (legend of stabbing in the back), which claimed that the German army ” Undefeated in the countryside , “had been” a stab in the back “on the inner front by civil leaders and Marxists , later known as the” November criminals. ” 31

The Treaty of Versailles stipulated that Germany must relinquish some of their territories and the demilitarization of the Rhineland . The treaty imposing economic sanctions and repairs of heavy gravel in the country. Many Germans perceived the treaty-especially article 231, which declared Germany responsible for the war-as a humiliation. 32 The Treaty of Versailles and the economic, social and political conditions in Germany after the war were later exploited by Hitler for political gain. 33

1920s

On March 14, 1920, Heinrich “Heinz” Hitler was born as the son of Alois Jr and his second wife, Hedwig Heidemann. In 1924, Alois Jr was indicted for bigamy, but acquitted due to the intervention of Bridget Dowling in his name. His eldest son, William Patrick, stayed with Alois and his new family during his first trips to the Weimar Republic (Germany) in the late 1920s and early 1930s.

When Adolf was confined to Landsberg, Angela Hitler made the trip from Vienna to visit him. The daughters of Angela, Geli and Elfriede, accompanied their mother when she became Hitler’s housekeeper in 1925; Geli Raubal was 17 at the time and spent the next six years in close contact with his half – uncle 34 . Her mother gave her a position as a housekeeper at the Berghof near Berchtesgaden in 1928. 35 Geli moved with Hitler to Munich in 1929, when she enrolled at Ludwig Maximilian University to study medicine. She did not complete her medical studies. 36

As he came to power as leader of the Nazi Party , Adolf maintained strict control over his half-niece and behaved in a dominant and possessive manner. 37 When he discovered that he was having a relationship with his chauffeur, Emil Maurice , he put an end to the matter and dismissed Maurice from his service. 36 38 Then he would not allow him to associate freely with friends, and he tried to have himself or someone of his confidence at his side at all times, accompanying her on purchases, excursions, the movies and the opera. 37 Adolf met Eva Braun, 23 years younger than him, in the Heinrich Hoffmann photographic studio in Munich in October 1929. 39 From time to time he had had relationships with other women, such as Hoffmann’s daughter, Henrietta, and María Reiter . 40

1930s

Some historians believe that Hitler had a sexual relationship with his half – niece Geli, who committed suicide in 1931. After having little contact with his brother Adolf, Paula was delighted to welcome you again in Vienna during the 1930s 41 For its After losing a job with a Vienna insurance company in 1930, when her employers found out who she was, Paula received financial support from her brother (who continued until his suicide in late April 1945). He lived under the Wolf family name at Hitler’s request (this was a childhood nickname he had also used during the 1920s for security reasons) and worked sporadically. He later claimed to have seen his brother once a year during the 1930s and early 1940s.

In 1934, Alois Jr. established a restaurant in Berlin that became a meeting place for SA . He managed to keep the restaurant open through the duration of World War II.

Angela strongly disapproved of Adolf’s relationship with Eva Braun , she eventually left Berchtesgaden as a result and moved to Dresden. Hitler broke off relations with Angela and did not attend his second marriage. 20 of January of 1936 married with the German architect Martin Hammitzsch, the Director of the State School Superior of Edificación of Dresden.

World War II

As Adolf led Germany into World War II , he distanced himself from his family. Despite being increasingly distanced after the disapproval of Adolf’s relationship with Eva Braun, Angela and Adolf eventually reestablished contact during the war. Angela was his intermediary with the rest of the family, because he did not want to have contact with it. In 1941, he sold his memoirs of his years with Hitler to publisher Eher Verlag , who paid him 20,000 Reichsmark . Meanwhile, Alois Jr. continued to run his restaurant for the duration of the war. He was arrested by the British but was released when it became apparent that he had not played any role in his brother’s regime.

A couple of Adolf’s relatives served in Nazi Germany during the war. Adolf’s nephew, Heinz Hitler, was a member of the Nazi Party. He attended a Nazi elite military academy, the National Institute of Education Policy (Napola) in Ballenstedt / Saxony-Anhalt. Aspired to be an officer, Heinz joined the Wehrmacht in 1941, and participated in the invasion of the Soviet Union, Operation Barbarossa . On January 10, 1942, he was captured by Soviet forces and sent to the Butyrka military prison in Moscow , where he died, aged 21, after several interrogations and torture.

Another Adolf nephew, Leo Rudolf Raubal , had been drafted by the Luftwaffe . He was wounded in January 1943 during the Battle of Stalingrad , 42 and Friedrich Paulus asked Hitler for a plane to evacuate Raubal to Germany. 43 Hitler refused and Raubal was captured by the Soviets on January 31, 1943. Hitler gave the order to review the possibility of an exchange of prisoners with the Soviets with the son of Stalin Yakov Dzhugashvili , who was in German captivity from 16 Of July 1941. 44 Stalin refused to exchange either Raubal for Friedrich Paulus, 45 and said that “war is war”. 46

In the spring of 1945, after the destruction of Dresden in the bombing of Dresden , Adolf moved Angela to Berchtesgaden to avoid being captured by the Soviets. Also, he left her and her younger sister Paula more than 100,000 Reichsmark. Paula barely saw her brother during the war. There is some evidence that Paula shared strong nationalist beliefs with her brother, but she was not politically active and never joined the Nazi Party. 47 During the last days of the war, at the age of 49, she was taken to Berchtesgaden, Germany, allegedly on the orders of Martin Bormann .

Adolf and Eva Braun committed suicide in the Führerbunker on April 30, 1945. 48

Post-war

In his will, Hitler guaranteed Angela a pension of 1,000 Reichsmark per month. It is not known whether he ever received a penny of that sum. However, she spoke very well of him, even after the war, and stated that neither her brother nor herself had known anything about the Holocaust . She stated that if Adolf had known what was happening in the concentration camps , he would have stopped them.

Adolf’s sister, Paula, was arrested by US intelligence officers in May 1945 and interrogated later that year. 49 The transcript shows that one of the officers said she was birthed with a physical resemblance to his brother. She told the Russians that they had confiscated her house in Austria, the Americans had expropriated her apartment in Vienna and that she was taking English lessons. She characterizes her childhood relationship with her brother as a constant fights and strong affection. Paula said she did not dare to believe that her brother had been responsible for the Holocaust. He also told them that he had met Eva Braun only once. Paula was released from US custody and returned to Vienna where she lived on her savings for a while, then worked in an arts and crafts shop.

Other relatives of Adolf Hitler were approached by the Soviets. In May 1945, five of Adolf Hitler’s relatives were arrested, his first cousins, Maria, Georg, and Eduard Schmidt, together with Maria’s husband, Ignaz Koppensteiner, his son Adolf, and Johann Schmidt, Jr., son of Maria and his now deceased brother Eduard Johann. Koppensteiner was arrested by the Soviets on the grounds that he “approves of [Hitler’s] criminal plans against the USSR.” He died in a prison in Moscow in 1949. Both Eduard and Maria died in the hands of the Soviets in 1951 and 1953, respectively. Johann Jr. was released in 1955. These relatives were posthumously pardoned by Russia in 1997. 50 51 52

In 1952, Paula Hitler moved to Berchtesgaden, Germany, reportedly residing “in seclusion” on a two-room apartment like Paula Wolff. During this time, she was attended by former SS members and survivors of her brother’s inner circle. In February 1959, she agreed to be interviewed by Peter Morley , a documentary producer for the British television network Associated-Rediffusion. The resulting conversation was the only filmed interview he ever gave and was broadcast as part of a show that was called Tyranny: The Adolf Hitler Years . He talked about everything about Hitler’s childhood.

Angela died of a heart attack on October 30, 1949. Her brother, Alois Jr., died on May 20, 1956 in Hamburg. Paula, the last surviving sister of Adolf, died on June 1, 1960, at the age of 64. 53

Children

It has been said that Hitler had a son, Jean-Marie Loret , with a Frenchwoman named Charlotte Lobjoie. Jean-Marie Loret was born in March 1918 and died in 1985, at the age of 67. 54 Loret married several times, and had a maximum of nine children. His family lawyer has suggested that if his Hitler offspring can be checked, the family might be able to claim copyright for Hitler’s book Mein Kampf . 55However, several historians like Anton Joachimsthaler, 56 and Sir Ian Kershaw , 57 say that Hitler’s paternity is unlikely or impossible to prove.